Freedom Summer

Background/Goals

In 1964 Mississippi many African American faced a problem, the white residents of the state did not want them as voters, so obstacles were created to prevent them from becoming registered voters. To combat this idealistic white people teamed up the the African Americans to mass register people as voters. This became known as the Freedom Summer.

Who was involved

In the fall of 1963 Robert Moses proposed the idea of Freedom Summer to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was chosen to direct it early in 1964. Because of this Moses is said to have been the leader of Freedom Summer. Moses had help from Dave Dennis, a participant of many sit-ins and the freedom rides. He was the leader of the Congress of Racial Equality's operations in Mississippi and Louisiana. He led CORE's participation during the movement. Together the SNCC and the CORE decided to recruit several hundred northern college students to go Mississippi during the summer. Together they helped African-American residents try to register to vote,and establish a new political party.

Obstacles they had to overcome

Many groups opposed the project, such as Mississippi's elected officials, business leaders, and white supremacist organizations. The elected officials in Mississippi denounced the Summer Project, the senators and governor publicly announced they refused to obey the federal laws on integration Along with this legislators passed new laws prohibiting picketing and leafleting. Many businesses banded together in a white Citizen Council that coordinated the foreclosure of mortgages on participators' homes, fired their black workers, and banned blacks from entering in their stores. Finally groups such as the infamous KKK inflicted violence by murdering, shooting,bombing and beating the participating black residents and civil rights activists.

Lasting Effecets

As the Freedom Summer was televised, may people saw the injustices toward the African American community and started to peak out against it. Along with that the wake Freedom Summer left contributed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mississippi's black residents also gained organizing skills and political experience. Years later, when the federal government finally sent dozens of officials to local governments to enable African-Americans to vote and run for office.

Modern Inequlity

The Freedom Summer bears many of the same idea as the more current Black Lives Matter movement, as they both include the cooperation between idealistic whites and African Americans, stand against the unequal treatment of African Americans, and have to do with police brutality.